Weapons Wash Ashore Experts To Analyze `Clandestine Arms Shipment`

JUPITER -- Explosive devices, thought to be part of a clandestine arms shipment, washed ashore Saturday at Jupiter in wooden boxes bearing Russian and Spanish markings.

Dozens of other empty and broken boxes were found on the beach between south Martin County and Delray Beach and officials said it appears that numerous unsuspecting beachgoers walked off with the very dangerous, beer- bottle-shaped devices, which an official described as ``some type of fusing device for conventional munitions.``

Many questions remained unanswered as members of the U.S. Army 66th Ordnance Detachment examined the devices and their containers and readied the explosives for transport to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

By 6:30 p.m. 30 of the devices had been found at three sites in the Jupiter area. The devices were wrapped in paper and packed tightly between pieces of wood inside drab green metal boxes. Metal boxes, each containing five explosive devices the size of beer bottles, were found inside the wooden boxes.

One of the crates bore the stenciled Cyrillic abbreviations ``Osk. Fug.`` In Russian, oskolochnyi are fragmentation or anti-personnel bombs. Fugas, from the French fougasse, are field charges or land mines. Additionally, the Russian stenciling noted that the crate originally had a gross weight of 68 kilograms, about 150 pounds. The crate was empty when found.

The Spanish phrase ``patria o muerte,`` meaning ``fatherland or death,`` was printed on another of the boxes.

A common revolutionary slogan in Latin America, the phrase is frequently linked to the Puerto Rican independence group known by its Spanish acronym, FALN.

``We`re into boats and we thought it was something off a ship,`` said David Sanderson, whose friend, Benny DiCocco, found a metal box containing five of the stainless steel devices near Blowing Rocks, in south Martin County, at 10 a.m. DiCocco took the box to Sanderson`s Juno Beach home, where they opened it with a sharp knife.

``It looked military, like a piece of survival equipment. It looked like K- rations out of a raft or possibly a first-aid kit,`` said Sanderson, who has served in the Navy.

They called the Jupiter police, who in turn called the Palm Beach County Sheriff`s Office bomb squad.

The Sheriff`s Office urged anyone in possession of a device to notify police.

``It is definitely explosive and it can definitely be life threatening if mishandled,`` said Sheriff Richard Wille, at the temporary command post set up at Coral Cove Park on Jupiter Island. ``There will be no recriminations. We won`t ask any questions. We just want to get them back.``

Officials from the U.S. Army and Navy, the State Department, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the FBI were notified.

Meanwhile, Jupiter Island was closed to non-resident traffic from 3 to 6 p.m., and officials closed the Lake Worth Beach, Kreusler Park, and the 2-mile stretch of beach south of the Palm Beach-Martin county line.

``It appears that it is some type of clandestine or illegal type of shipment,`` said Robert Neumann, head of the FBI`s West Palm Beach office.

Speculation that the devices may have been from the nuclear-powered Russian submarine that sank recently 600 miles east of Bermuda were unfounded, Neumann said. He also said there was no evidence, so far, linking the explosives to a Bahamian freighter, the Long Island Express, that on Oct. 3 sank 15 miles off the coast of Jupiter. The ship, bound for the Bahamas, Neumann said, had left from the Port of Palm Beach carrying concrete blocks. The crew was rescued.

Officials said it had not yet been determined where the explosive devices were made, although it was emphasized they were not American; neither is it known where the arms were from, or what their destination was.

``That`s a good question where they`re from -- and how they got here is another question,`` said Sgt. Frank Hoover of the Florida National Guard in West Palm Beach.

Sheriff`s spokesman Mike McNamee said Army weapons experts will examine the fuses at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to determine exactly what type of munitions they were designed to detonate.

Also, two larger, rectangular wooden crates were found, and Wille said he had information that suggested they may have contained rocket launchers.

Rough seas had kept Saturday`s beach crowd to a minimum, so relatively few people were affected by the beach closings.